Working Hard for the Money
by Missie2
Summary: Without empathy, there can be no compassion... KaiRei yaoi.
1. Default Chapter

Working Hard For The Money

I know I should be finishing Intoxication. But I just quit my job and I'm feeling pissed off. Enjoy!

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Practice started at ten a.m. Every morning. Without fail.

Kai checked his watch. Eleven thirty, and still no sign of Rei. He knew what time practice was, why wasn't he there? It was hard enough getting Takao and Max to turn up on time, but Kai had always taken Rei to be a punctual person. Just recently, he had been turning up late for practice, occasionally not showing up at all. Kai's blood boiled. He'd been cancelling dates with Kai as well, claiming he was too tired to go out.

" Well, I've been too soft on him. Just because we're in a relationship doesn't mean he can get lazy. I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind," fumed Kai to himself, as he watched the other two battle.

At last, Rei appeared. He was in the process of tying his hair back, and he did look tired. But he managed to smile at Kai and wave a casual greeting to Kenny as he walked by.

" You're late," Kai hissed at his boyfriend. Rei's smile dropped immediately and he looked hurt. Kai called out to Max at the Beydish.

" Max, step back! Takao, you're battling Rei!"

" Whoa, hold on a minute! I just got here," exclaimed Rei.

" You should have been here over an hour ago. Consider this making up for lost time. Move!"

Rei shot him a look of such fury that, for a moment, Kai was stunned. He put his feelings aside to watch the match. It was no contest, really. Rei's heart obviously wasn't in it. He ripped the cord and released the blade, but never even attempted to defend himself. Takao won each match easily, but didn't cheer like he would have done normally. Finally, Kai called of the match. He leaned up close to Rei's face, and spoke in an angry, clipped tone.

" That was utterly pathetic," he spat, " If you're too lazy to put the effort in, you should quit Beyblading altogether."

He began to walk away, thinking that Rei would take his words with shame and improve his performance for the next day. What happened was as unexpected as it was shocking.

Rei just erupted in a frenzy of violent behaviour, knocking Kai to the ground and hitting him with clenched fists. Out of his mouth, that Kai had lavished kisses on less than a day before, came a slew of screeched gibberish, punctuated by the blows. And then, the attack ceased as suddenly as it had started, when Rei appeared to have run out of energy. Before his team mates could pull him away, he got up himself and walked back to the hotel, without looking back once.

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Kai didn't see his lover again for the rest of the day, and assumed Rei was avoiding him. He spent most of the day in the hotel room, waiting for Rei and treating his injuries. It was nothing serious, just a few bruises and scratches, but still he was worried. Rei had never acted violent towards him before.

At around midnight, Rei finally returned. He didn't often stay in the hotel, but he had agreed to stay with Kai for the weekend. All his clothes were in the hotel room. Kai expected Rei to apologise, to beg Kai to forgive him, to cry a little. Instead, Rei sat at the tabletop mirror and brushed his hair in silence. Kai could tell the Chinese boy was tense by the set of his back. He leaned forward, and pressed a hesitant kiss to Rei's neck, just to show he wasn't too angry. Rei flinched, to Kai's surprise. He broke the silence.

" What do you have to say for yourself?" Kai said, in a slightly joking manner. Rei turned around. There was no humour in his eyes.

" I think we should break up."

Kai blinked. He wasn't expecting _that! _" What?" he asked.

" You heard me." Rei turned back to the mirror.

" Christ, Rei! It was just one little fight! That's no reason to break up. I don't understand…"

" That's just _it!" _Rei practically screamed, rising from his chair. " You don't understand, you'll never understand, so we can't be together!"

" What the hell is wrong with you?" Kai shouted back, " I give out to you for being lazy, and you start hitting me? And then I have the cheek to be annoyed with you for hitting me, so we have to break up? Forgive me for not understanding that!"

" Where was I today?" Rei asked, his eyes glowing with rage.

" What? I don't know, I figured you were off sulking somewhere."

" For your information, I was working. You didn't see me for twelve hours and you thought I was sulking? God, I'd hate to be kidnapped and reliant on you to save me."

" So, you have a job. Lots of people have jobs."

" Not just a job, Kai. Two jobs. I was at my second job."

" What?" Kai blinked, astonished.

" I told you I had a second job a month ago. Shows how much you listen, doesn't it?"

" Why would you get another job? It's hard enough to schedule practice around your work hours as it is!" Kai just managed to duck before the hairbrush hit him in the head.

" So I should feel sorry for you?" Rei roared at him, " Oh, poor Kai, he must spend all day working out those timetables! Well, here's news for you, I don't have millions of dollars in a trust fund to spend on hotel rooms! I didn't take a second job because I want to, I took it because I _have _to! I took it because the minimum wage was lowered and my income taxes skyrocketed, and let's not forget my rent being bumped up because I live somewhere where I'm less likely to be shot on my doorstep! So now I need two jobs so I can afford little luxuries like food and water! Maybe I could have gotten a better job somewhere that pays over the minimum wage, but no-one would hire me because I don't have a high school diploma and I'm a minority! "

Kai was shocked into silence as Rei finished his tirade, and sank to his seat in front of the mirror. He sat down himself, at the edge of the bed.

" I'm sorry," he began, " I didn't realise…"

" Well, how could you? You barely see me at all any more. The only time we ever get to see each other is at training. I work two eight-hour shifts, Kai. The rest of the time I use to eat, sleep and practice. And on top of all that, I have my relationship with you to consider. "

" So you're breaking up with me because you're too _busy?"_

" No!" Rei's voice rose with anger again. " You don't understand what kind of life I'm living, Kai, and you never will! You've never had to work for a living a day in your life. This morning, I did overtime at the bar to pay off my electricity bills and I was exhausted. I was sorely tempted to just stay at home and sleep until my shift at the restaurant began. Do you know why I decided to turn up?"

" No," said Kai, warily.

" Because I said to myself, if I do turn up, despite the fact I can barely keep my eyes open, maybe my boyfriend will be so happy to see me and so proud that I made the effort that it would be worth it. That's the _only_ reason I turned up."

At that moment, Kai felt about three inches tall.

" Why didn't you tell me you were having trouble with money? I could have given you the cash, no problem!" he said, in a complacent tone.

" That's not what I want! I don't want pity, especially from you!"

" Then what do you want from me?"

Rei looked him dead in the eyes, and Kai saw the fatigue in those dull amber orbs. It wasn't just physical tiredness, it was emotional.

" Empathy. That's all. I don't want you bawling me out for being late. I don't want you complaining that we never spend any time together. And I certainly don't want charity."

" All right. I won't do any of those things. Happy?"

" No. That's not it. See, that would work, maybe for a week or two, but then you'd slip up. The problem runs a lot deeper than that, Kai. We come from two different worlds. If you can't empathise with me, you can't feel any compassion for me. And I know you'll never be able to empathise unless you've been in my position. We're too different, and it's going to come between us. If not now, then soon."

Rei got up to go to the door, but before he could leave, Kai leapt forward and grabbed his arm, turning the Chinese boy around to face him.

" I don't want us to break up," he hissed through clenched teeth. " I'll do anything, just don't finish it like this. Tell me what you want and I'll do it."

Rei thought for a moment, and spoke wearily.

" Fine. You live my life."

" What?"

" For the next two weeks, you live my life. You live in my flat, work both my jobs, pay my bills, do my chores. If you can stick it out for the whole two weeks, we stay together."

For a while, Kai said nothing. This sounded like a good idea, but Rei was right. Kai had never had even a part-time job, let alone two full time jobs. Two weeks didn't really seem that long, but obviously Rei knew something he didn't. Could he do it?

" All right," he said at last.

" Good. You start on Monday."


	2. Chapter 2

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Working Hard for the Money

Chapter Two

Before you start reading this, I'd like to let you know that this fic is based entirely on fact, aside from the obviously fictional elements. The restaurant scene is based on an experience I had once. Aspects of working in certain jobs, the psychology of the service industry, the experience of making ends meet with no other prospects, all of those things are very real and that's the way many people live these days. The ones who work the hardest get the least money, go to the worst schools and lead the hardest lives, while the rich fritter away with no concern. Modern life is downright sociopathic.

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Dressed in Rei's all-black uniform at quarter to seven in the morning, standing outside the Mauritius restaurant, Kai felt his nerves tense up under his skin. Rei was right; he had never done a day's work in his life. He had worked hard at the Abbey, but that was for only four hours a day and a large portion of that was spent seated, listening to someone scream at you. But approximately 48 of the population were working or had worked at some point in the food service industry. How hard could it be?

His thoughts turned back to the night before. He and Rei had swapped dwellings. For the first time, he had been inside his lover's home, and it had turned his stomach. It wasn't so much a flat so much as a hole in the building. It couldn't have measured more than eight metres square, and there was no bathroom. The missing bathroom was located later down the hall, with a single toilet, a shower and a filthy bathtub. There was no kitchen, either, just a plug-in hotplate and a few pots, stacked on top of each other. Rei's bed was pushed up against a wall, a miserable sagging affair with a single blanket and no sheets. Rei's few clothes usually sat in the corner beside the pots and pans, but he had taken them with him when he left. The window was broken and boarded up with a sheet of cardboard, and under the blanket sat a large hot water bottle. To Kai, it was like a scene from some film made in Eastern Europe about the Serbo-Croatian struggle.

Also sitting on the bed was a list of things for Kai to take into consideration while he was living there. At the top of the list were Rei's work hours, how much he got paid and how much his rent and bills were. Kai was confused by this part. Rei worked eight hours at the restaurant and six at the bar for minimum wage, 1.75 dollars, working six days a week with Sunday off. Altogether, he made 147 a week. His rent was 94 dollars a week.

" Ninety five dollars for this shit hole?" was Kai's reaction when he first read that bit.

That left him with 53 dollars to see him through the rest of the week. Kai had paid more than that once for lunch at a restaurant. His water bill usually came to about nine dollars a week, if he was careful. That meant having two showers at the flat a week, cold sponge baths every morning, and drinking as little as possible. When this was set, there would be about 44 or 43 dollars left. The electricity bill could be as much as twenty dollars, and once that was gone there would be only twenty, give or take, to spend on food. Rei recommended that Kai buy only fresh fruits and vegetables at the open market in the city centre to save money, and nothing pre-packaged. According to the note, there was flour and olive oil in the cold corner of the flat (Rei had no fridge) with which he could make unleavened bread on the hotplate. Unfortunately, Kai had never so much as boiled an egg before. Then that was all the money gone until the next payday. Rei added at the end, helpfully, that the tips at the bar were rather good if there was an emergency.

In capital letters along the page were Rei's tips on what not to do. Some of these included:

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DO NOT SPEND ANY MONEY ON MEDICAL SUPPLIES, NO MATTER HOW MUCH PAIN YOU'RE IN. YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT.

WEAR COMFORTABLE SHOES TO WORK, NOT THOSE BLACK LEATHER BOOTS OF YOURS, OR THERE WILL BE A GALLON OF SWEAT AROUND YOUR FEET BY THE END OF THE DAY.

SMILE AT THE CUSTOMERS, OR THEY WON'T TIP. YOU NEED TIPS BADLY.

TRY TO KEEP YOUR SHOWERS SHORT, BECAUSE YOU NEED THE WATER FOR HEAT AT NIGHT. IT GETS VERY COLD IN THERE.

YOU OFFICIALLY START IN THE RESTAURANT AT NINE, BUT EVERYONE ARRIVES AT SEVEN TO PREPARE THE FOOD AND DO THE CLEANING. YOU DON'T GET PAID FOR THIS, BUT IF YOU DON'T TURN UP YOU WILL BE FIRED.

DON'T TALK BACK, ESPECIALLY TO THE CHEF. HE'S A TEMPERAMENTAL PRICK WITH THE POWER TO FIRE YOU.

(REFERENCE TO THE BAR) IF A CUSTOMER GRABS YOUR ASS OR ANY OTHER PART OF YOUR ANATOMY, GIGGLE AND SMILE. YOU'LL BE REWARDED IN TIPS.

ANY TIPS LEFT BY THE RESTAURANT GOERS IS SEVICE CHARGE AND YOU WON'T GET IT, BUT IF A CUSTOMER REFUSES TO PAY ON ONE OF YOUR TABLES, IT'S TAKEN OUT OF YOUR WAGES. DON'T PISS THEM OFF, AND LISTEN HARD WHEN THEY ORDER.

So it was obviously harder than he thought. And why would anyone have to turn up two hours early if they weren't getting paid for it? His instincts were telling him to run away as fast as he could.

" No," he told himself sternly, " This is important to Rei, so its important to me too. It's just two weeks. If nearly half the population can do it, so can I."

With a feeling of impending doom, Kai opened the door and walked inside. Someone was there already, a man in his late twenties sweeping the floor.

" Sorry, we're not open for breakfast yet," he said without even looking up. Kai blinked. Hadn't Rei told the manager about the swap?

" I'm not here for breakfast," he muttered " I'm filling in for Rei Kon."

That got his attention. The man's head snapped up and his eyes widened. Then, he frowned.

" I expected you to be better looking. So you're Rei's boyfriend, eh?"

Better looking?

" What did Rei tell you about me?" he asked.

" Jeez, what hasn't Rei told me about you. He never shuts up. The way he talks, I was expecting Brad Pitt or something."

" Sorry to disappoint you," Kai muttered sarcastically.

" No sweat. The coffee machine needs cleaning, that's Rei's department. Get to it, and I'll give you a briefing before the place opens. We're down two workers today, Rocket got pissed off with the Latino girls and fired them."

" Just like that?"

" Yep. Don't piss off Rocket. He's a volatile fucker."

Kai got started on the coffee machine. Ordinarily, he liked the smell of coffee. But the stale smell of hours upon hours of use was utterly foul, as it was with all the utensils. The panini press stank of burned cheese, the microwave of rotting meat and the cooker of grease. It was enough to turn one's stomach. The coffee machine was a pain in the backside to clean, literally. By the time he had it finished, all the muscles on Kai's lower torso were aching. His co-worker popped his head in to check how he was getting on. He raked a critical eye over the coffee machine.

" It's not clean enough, but it'll do for today. Come on."

Not clean enough? It was sparkling! Kai followed the man out to the front of the restaurant sulkily.

" I haven't introduced myself yet," the man said breezily, " I'm Andre. I'm the head waiter. Anything you need you come to me for. Any questions so far?"

" No."

" Ever worked in a restaurant before?"

" No."

" Ever worked in food service before?"

" No."

" Okay. Well, it's fairly simple. People come in, you take their orders, give the orders to the kitchen, deliver the food to the table, clean up afterwards and make coffee."

Andre pointed to a set of six tables near the centre of the room.

" Tables six through twelve are Rei's, and today they're yours. The middle tables are usually the busiest, so keep on your toes. Tables one to five are mine, and the rest belong to Lana and Justina. Okay?"

Kai nodded, swallowing.

" Good boy," said Andre with a rakish smile.

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5pm.

Kai wanted to lie down and die. The day had been a complete disaster. Taking orders had been a problem, because although he had memorized the menu people wanted things changed. Tomato and pesto sandwiches with no pesto, tuna salad with no mayonnaise, plain pasta with sauce on the side, apple and blackberry pie with no fucking pastry. Why didn't they just stay at home?

Of course, Kai was bound to get something wrong. So when he delivered a plate of steak to an enormously fat woman with a few tiny leaves of lettuce on the side, she complained.

" I didn't order a salad," she huffed, " I was very specific about it."

Kai remembered that bit. He had written on the docket '_no salad!' _Somehow the salad had appeared on the plate anyway. And it hadn't stopped the woman from eating the steak.

" I'm not paying for something I didn't order," she said in the snottiest tone imaginable.

" You don't have to pay for it, ma'am. Salads are complimentary," he said, hating himself for trying to appease her.

" You got my order wrong and ruined my meal. I'm not paying for it. I want to see the manager."

Well, that would have been hard, because the manager had stopped by for an hour and left again. Kai went to the back to ask Andre what to do.

" She being a bitch?" was Andre's first question.

" Absolutely."

" Right. This happens sometimes, and when it does I pretend to be the manager. Let's just stuff her face and get her out of here."

Within moments, the woman had a second steak without a salad on the house. Kai was so relieved he could have cried.

" Thanks," he whispered to Andre.

" Don't thank me. It's coming out of your wages."

What? The two steaks had been twenty dollars altogether!

" Don't feel too bad," Andre said, when he saw the panic on Kai's face, " All the choosy pricks sit in the middle, because they like to be seen. That scuffle back there wasn't about food, she wanted to feel superior to you and everyone else. Happens all the time. Tomorrow you can take my tables. We give Rei the hard ones because he's charming enough to shut the troublemakers up."

Kai went home knowing he was out twenty dollars. The work he'd done that day had earned him fourteen dollars. He'd worked for nothing. He had four hours to go before his shift at the bar, where he hoped to regain some ground.


End file.
